Monday, October 17, 2016

Cassie's Journal - October 16, 2016

Happy 35th Birthday, Aunt
Leanne!

I’ll get to the birthday report soon, but
this is a double-update; so let’s back up to Saturday morning and go from
there.

Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I did not get much
sleep on Friday night; and Michael and I needed some Magi-powered healing
before we got to the Inn for the breakfast buffet shift on Saturday morning.Since we had a few too many people at home,
we stopped in at Michael’s house to take care of that bit of healing; and then
we got to work.The buffet breakfast was
a hit; and we had a good crowd that included a lot of weekend visitors that are
here for the festival.I’m not going to
drag out that news, but I worked at the Inn until nine; headed for the park
from there; and took my shift at the marching band fundraising booth until a
bit after twelve.We had a cloudy day on
Saturday, but it was warm too; so we sold a lot of drinks and snacks – along with
a lot of raffle tickets and fruit and vegetable boxes pre-orders for the next
delivery.

It was time for me to play with my family
and friends for a while after that; and I spent the afternoon having fun with
Mom, Dad, the twins, and the rest of our family and friends – though the family
and friends times were usually cameo moments playing games or going on rides
together; since there were too many of us to just hang out together the entire
time.Michael was with me for his
afternoon break; and we mostly played in the midway while he was able to do
that with me; and then I went back to the Inn to work the dinner rush.There was a rush for that, but it was mostly
visitors and store or festival workers coming to the Inn to eat while most of
the locals supported the fundraiser food booths and had dinner at the park
while continuing to play there or watch the ongoing stage shows.

I only worked at the Inn until the last
main rush was over; and then I went back to the park for some more play
time.Michael didn’t join me until after
the Inn was closed for the night; and we split our time between the midway
rides and the country music dance.We
only stayed at the park until it started to rain; and then we took Ethan,
Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden home while the parents decided to stay and see if the
rain stopped as the farmers predicted and contrary to the weather forecasting experts.That worked out for all of us, since the kids
were tired out by then, and so were Michael and I; while the parents were ready
for a bit of kid-free time.You already
know from my deferred update last night that Michael and I were cuddling in the
lounge by eleven-thirty or so; we’d put the kids to bed before splitting up to
get cleaned up and changed after a very long, busy day; and there was a minor
make-out session that was more playful than hot before I needed to snuggle with
Michael and go into nap mode until morning.

The rain did end; the parents stayed at the
park until around one o’clock after helping out with some marching band
fundraiser work at the booth; and I was sleeping before they got home.That’s likely why I was the first to wake;
and then we were off and running again as I did some prep work for the
breakfast we hosted for Aunt Leanne before we headed out to the river for our
Tai Chi workout with the Carringtons, Naomi, and Aiden all joining us for the
workout.Grandma and Grandpa were with
us for breakfast too, and we had a lot of fun celebrating Aunt Leanne’s big
day; but I was also running myself ragged to help out with the work on both
sides of the meal; handle the kid control with Michael; and get ready for the
teen-led service that was at the park because it was warm-enough that we could
do that.The church service venue had
been, by necessity, a last-minute call by Pastor John, so we also needed to be
at the park early to do the set-up on stage.

Michael and I helped with that; we warmed
up while the congregation was arriving; and then we took the tempo of our
morning up a few notches with a very busy, energetic service filled with music,
skits, and fun for all!Having the
service at the park meant that nearly everyone stayed there and started having
fun at the festival as it started up again after the service.Michael had to get to the Inn for the lunch rush,
but I stayed at the park; helped with packing up the gear from the church
service to make way for the first act of the day for the festival; and then I
took another, shorter shift at the fundraiser booth for an hour and a half or
so.The weather today was unbelievable
for mid-October; and the temperature soared into the eighties with a feels-like
temperature in the nineties!That was
awesome for the festival; the park was packed; and the only down-side was that
we had to wait in line for nearly every ride.I didn’t go on a lot of rides, since Michael and I didn’t get to have
much time for that while he was on his afternoon break; and then we needed to
be back at the Inn to help with what ended up being a packed house for both
buffets with as many extra turnovers as we could manage.

The buffet diners included my family for
the late buffet.They were continuing
Aunt Leanne’s birthday celebration, and while I couldn’t take the time off to
have dinner with them; I did take a break to be there for the gift opening and
birthday cake moments.While I missed
out on most of that family and friends fun, I was happy to help Jacob and
Miranda – and they really needed the help as we don’t really have enough staff
to handle that much business without any of the college-student staff that
Miranda counts on having during holidays and the summer season.Being short-staffed is why we didn’t get the
Inn closed until after eleven by the time we had the clean-up finished and the
dining room set for breakfast.Michael
and I were worn out by then, so our goodnight hugs and kisses were on his front
porch and then I came straight home.

Exhausted or not, my day wasn’t done – and neither
was Dad’s as he was still trying to get everything ready for his week in the
city.I helped him out with that by
working in the office too; using a time phase; and blasting through my language
studies and family business work until he was finished everything and had his
bags packed for the trip to Crystal Springs.We headed for bed then, but I took a shower first before climbing into
bed with Mandy; and then did a bit more computing before getting to this
report.There isn’t much time left for
napping before we’ll be getting up again to see Dad off on his trip, but I am
caught up on my work and studying; and should be able to keep up with that this
week.I’d like to help Mom a bit more
than usual too while Dad’s away; but we’ll see how that goes.

We’re half-way through October, but still
have a lot of fun ahead of us even though the fall festival is over now.I really need to get started on my nap,
though, and you don’t really need a look at the week ahead when you’re reading
this in the future anyway; so that’s all for now!